IoT news of the week for May 19, 2023

Latch’s deal for Jamie Siminoff’s startup is a $20M acqui-hire: This week, Latch acquired Honest Day’s Work, a stealthy startup founded by Jamie Siminoff. Siminoff, who founded Ring and then sold it to Amazon in 2018, will become the CEO of Latch once the deal goes through. But as deals go, this one is pretty wacky. (Stacey on IoT)

11 vulnerabilities found in cellular routers designed for industrial networks: Well this isn’t good. Researchers at security firm Otorio have documented 11 vulnerabilities in the gateway devices used in industrial networks that connect OT devices to cellular networks. The vulnerabilities are associated with cloud management, but even if customers don’t configure the devices to connect to the cloud, they are still vulnerable. Affected devices are Sierra Wireless AirLink, Teltonika Networks RUT, and InHand Networks InRouter. The vulnerabilities stem from default settings that make it possible to connect the router to the cloud. For details on the exploit, and mitigation strategies, click on through. (Dark Reading)

ANYbotics has raised $50M for four-legged industrial robots: ANYbotics, a Swiss company that makes industrial robots currently used for inspections in hazardous areas, has raised $50 million in a Series B round. The funding will help the firm fulfill its $150 million worth of orders for its four-legged ANYmal robot, contribute to R&D to improve the AI on the robots, and fund international expansion. (ANYBotics)

What’s changed in the two years since Colonial Pipeline? This author argues that nothing much has changed in the way companies secure their networks despite all of the attention and money paid to secure both IT and OT systems. The author is the CEO of a security startup, but seems incredibly frustrated by the fact that all of the spending on security solutions hasn’t changed the levels of security very much. He also worries that because of the economic downturn that spending will decrease. He’s not calling for any specific actions, but argues that we have an ever-expanding attack surface and we need to do something to change the economics of security today. As he writes: “The economics of the problem remain in favor of the bad guys — they make a profit by causing you problems. You (probably) make a profit, by spending less.” Grim stuff. (Smart Industry)

Smarter HVAC gets two funding events: Two startups making HVAC systems smarter got funding this week. First up is Kelvin, which raised $30 million to help spread its product, the Cozy. The device fits over existing radiators, captures their heat, and distributes it as needed throughout a building to help prevent the common problem of one-size-fits-all temperatures heating some apartments to boiling while others remain freezing cold. Second up is Quilt, a company building a smart heat pump, which raised $9 million. The Quilt heat pump uses algorithms to track heating and cooling patterns throughout the home in order to optimize airflow and cooling. It also allows for room-by-room control of temperature. Thanks to decarbonization efforts and federal dollars allocated for electrifying homes, better heat pumps and ways to retrofit older systems are gaining in both interest and popularity (and funding). (Kelvin, Quilt)

WePower makes a self-powered industrial button: Who doesn’t love a big red button? Now industrial users can have a big red button that doesn’t use batteries. The GEMNS G100 EHG wireless panel switch launched this week, and uses kinetic energy generated by magnets to deliver 3 millijoules of energy. This energy can power a microcontroller and read sensors, perform computations, and transmit encrypted data over an RF link. Engineers can retrofit the G100 onto the common push button of today’s industrial machinery controls with no new design engineering. So now, with just the push of a button, plant engineers can get a snapshot of a machine’s sensor readings or simply send a notification. And because it’s self-powered, this additional functionality doesn’t need a new wire. (WePower Technologies)

Cisco and NTT have teamed up for IoT services: Nothing earth-shattering here, but networking giant Cisco will work directly with NTT Ltd. to create reference designs for widespread IoT deployments in enterprise and industrial settings. This is part of a consulting business that NTT has “activated” (truly, what is that jargon?). NTT has introduced a business unit of 1,000 consultants, engineers, enterprise architects, and sustainability experts that will build and deploy roughly 100 different IoT use cases. Presumably, like all IoT consulting efforts, they will get roughly 80% of the way there with existing reference designs and then charge buckets of money to customize the last 20%. And Cisco will sell this consulting as part of its general IoT equipment sales. (NTT)

Finally, some common sense thoughts about how AI will hurt/help us: This article makes the point that AI doomsaying is harmful because it makes us feel hopeless, and then points out that AI is already having effects on society that we need to think about rather than succumbing to despair. The author asks excellent questions about how we deal with the massive changes caused by the latest AI developments and provides concrete ways that teachers, employers, and governments need to address the potential disruptions. Go read it. I know I’m already seeing efficiency gains from using AI, and am wondering how I want to handle my increased productivity. (One Useful Thing)

This hardware could bring voice to Home Assistant: This is the year of voice for the Home Assistant DIY software platform, and the team behind Home Assistant at Nabu Casa is trying to build natural language processing models as well as hardware. But if you can’t wait, this project called Willow is worth a look. It’s a list of hardware onto which one can load the Willow voice assistant software and then connect it to Home Assistant. (Ars Technica)

Hey, the first update to Matter is out! And it’s…underwhelming. Read the details over on my site to learn how Matter 1.1 cleans up code and makes it less likely battery-powered devices register as non-operational in a Matter network. (Stacey on IoT)

Comment of the week! We get a lot of good comments on the site, but in light of my persistent frustrations with Matter I thought this comment from J.D. Roberts encapsulated my issues with the standard and the companies putting out Matter gear. Here’s an edited version of the comment: “Interesting that the new Echo Pop advertises itself as supporting Matter, but doesn’t support Thread. Which means once again someone could buy two devices with the same logo that can’t actually work together, like the Echo Pop and the Eve smart plug. Disappointing…[f]ill your shopping cart with devices that all have the Matter logo and only some of them will work together. Not what we were promised. I really think the CSA has to come up with a ‘Matter light’ logo for Matter controllers which don’t have Thread support.” (Stacey on IoT)